The Mexican Constituent Congress assembles for the first time on February 24, with an executive panel called the 'Regency' taking an oath of office. But in May, one of the Regents, Agustin de Iturbide decides to do the Napoleon thing, and stages is ascension to Emperor. Iturbide dissolves the Congress on October 31. His reign will not last long: The commander of the Veracruz garrison, Antonio López de Santa Anna, starts a revolt in December that will result in Iturbide's abdication the following year.

King João VI returns to Portugal after acceding to the authority of the constitutional government that was formed during his exile in Brazil. With Joao gone, Brazil declares its independence, making Joao's son emperor Pedro I.

Muhammad Ali, nominally Ottoman viceroy of Egypt but pretty much independent, introduces conscription to found a modern Egyptian army.

Byron, Shelley, and Leigh Hunt found a political newspaper, The Liberal (in Italy to avoid prosecution for sedition in Britain). Mary Shelley miscarries and narrowly escapes death. While convalescing at Casa Magni, Mary Shelley has a nightmare that might be considered a premonition of Shelley's death. Four editions of The Liberal are published, but after Shelley's death, the paper folds.

Greece declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire. When Ali Pasha allies himself with the rebellious Greeks, assassins are sent from Istanbul and bring his head back. A rebel Greek fleet destroys the Ottoman fleet after the latter's massacre on Chios. The Sultan sends an army which overruns Northern Greece, and the Greek government flees.

English is made the official language of the Cape Colony as British colonists begin to arrive in large numbers.

American abolitionists who imagine that freed slaves should be resettled in Africa, found the colony of Liberia.

Denmark Vesey plans a slave revolt in South Carolina, but he is betrayed before the scheduled date.

Florida, recently taken from Spain, is organized as a US Territory. The territory's first nonvoting delegate to Congress, Joseph Marion Hernández, is the first Hispanic to serve in that body.

Great Britain finds itself opposed to the policies of the other Powers of Europe meeting at the Congress of Verona, and the political alliance designed top keep another Napoleon from appearing begins to break down.